CVS Pharmacist in Coventry refuses to fill woman’s prescription for Plan-B. From the projo:

Pharmacist refuses to fill prescription

A Planned Parenthood spokeswoman decries the delay in a customer’s ability to get her “morning-after pill” contraceptive, but CVS and a state official defend a pharmacist’s right to act on moral beliefs.

01:00 AM EDT on Thursday, August 11, 2005

BY BARBARA POLICHETTI
Journal Staff Writer

CVS pharmacists, acting on their religious or moral beliefs, can refuse to fill contraceptive prescriptions as long as they make sure the customer can get the medication when another pharmacist is on duty or at another CVS store, company officials said yesterday.

“Our policy is to fill prescriptions for all customers in a timely manner and to make sure their needs are met and that they are satisfied,” Eileen Howard Dunn, vice president of corporate communications and community relations for CVS, said yesterday. “As an employer, however, we must also accommodate a sincerely held religious conviction that may prevent a pharmacist from dispensing a certain prescription.”

Dunn’s remarks came in response to media reports of a woman who was temporarily denied the “morning-after” contraceptive pill at the CVS pharmacy on Tiogue Avenue in Coventry last Friday.

Dunn, who declined to identify either the patron or the pharmacist, said that the customer pulled up to the store’s drive-up window at about 10 p.m. The pharmacist on duty at the 24-hour store refused to fill the prescription because it conflicted with his or her personal beliefs, Dunn said.

Instead, Dunn said, the customer was given the option of either returning to the store the next morning or having CVS send the prescription to another 24-hour store, in Warwick, where it could be filled immediately.

She said that the customer opted to return to the Coventry store on Saturday and picked up her prescription at about 8 a.m.

Dunn said that situation was handled in compliance with corporate policy and that the customer did not complain to the store or to company headquarters.

The incident has angered leaders of Planned Parenthood of Rhode Island, who called CVS’ actions “criminal.”

“Why are we placing undue obstacles on a woman?” Kathy Kushnir, vice president of external affairs for Planned Parenthood, said. “If a woman presents a legal prescription, it must be filled at that time — period, end of story.

“And even if this is just one case, it’s a major case because we have a woman going from pharmacy to pharmacy trying to fill a valid prescription,” Kushnir said. “That is criminal.”

RECENTLY, the so-called “morning after pill,” sold under the name Plan B, has been the focal point of a national debate over whether pharmacists’ religious or moral concerns take precedence over consumers’ right to fill a prescription.

It is also wrapped up in the debate over abortion, as there is argument over exactly how the pill works. According to the Web site posted by Plan B manufacturer Duramed Pharmaceuticals, the pill contains a hormone found in most birth-control pills and can work in three ways — it may stop the release of an egg from the ovary, it may prevent the uniting of sperm with an egg, and it may also prevent an egg from attaching to the uterus.

Catherine Cordy, executive director of the state Board of Pharmacy, said that there is nothing in Rhode Island law that “clearly spells out when a pharmacist can or cannot” fill a prescription.

Instead, she said, there are standards of practice that give pharmacists the latitude to refuse to dispense a drug based on their “moral, ethical or professional medical judgment.”

“We believe this is appropriate as long as [the prescription] is made reasonably available to the patient through another pharmacist at the same store or the prescription is transferred to another store,” she said.

Similar standards, she said, have been codified by the American Medical Association and the American Pharmacists Association.

Cordy said that although no complaint has been filed regarding last week’s incident at the Coventry CVS, the state board will investigate the matter.

Kushnir said that the delay in filling the woman’s prescription in Coventry last week is particularly egregious because the morning-after pill is time sensitive and must be taken between 72 and 120 hours after unprotected sex.

“The sooner you take it, the more effective it is,” Kushnir said, adding that a pharmacist who refuses to fill the prescription has no way of knowing what the customer’s time constraints are unless they engage in an inappropriate conversation.

“They don’t know when a woman might have unprotected sex or if she had sex against her will,” Kushnir said. “A woman with a valid, legal prescription should not have to have that conversation with her pharmacist . . . and she should not be sitting there in the store doing the math.”

Dunn said that CVS wants its customers to be satisfied, and that pharmacists are strictly prohibited from discussing their personal views with customers.

“We just want to make sure that people know that we are sensitive to this issue and that we are in the business of filling prescriptions for our customers and that is our number-one goal,” she said.

She said that is why the company makes sure a customer gets the medication at another time or location if a pharmacist will not fill a prescription for personal reasons.

Kushnir countered that, “Going from Coventry to Warwick may seem innocuous enough, but given the realities of everyday life, it could be a dangerous burden.”

“My presumption,” she said, “is that if I have a valid prescription, I can walk into any pharmacy and get it filled.”

RI NOW Responds

We believe that any woman should be able to walk into her pharmacy with a valid prescription for emergency contraception (or any contraceptive), and have it filled with no questions asked. Decisions about birth control should be left up to a woman and her doctor and no pharmacist has the right to insert himself or herself into a woman’s private healthcare decisions. Referral to another pharmacist or pharmacy is not a satisfactory remedy because these place an additional burden on the woman seeking the prescription, a burden that is not imposed on any other type of prescription, especially not one that must be taken in a timely manner.

Meaghan Lamarre, Action VP, was interviewed by and appeared on WPRI in response to this issue on August 11. Stay tuned for more response and/or possible action on this issue.

Jim Baron 08/12/2005 Pawtucket Times

PROVIDENCE — Chanting “Save Roe, Vote No,” a handful of abortion rights activists rallied at Kennedy Plaza in protest of President George W. Bush’s nomination of Judge John Roberts to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“We are here today because we believe in women’s reproductive rights,” said Meaghan Lamarre, Action Vice President of Rhode Island National Organization for Women (RI NOW). “We are here today because we recognize that those rights are under attack, and we are here today to fight back.”

With the resignation last month of Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Lamarre said, speaking through a bullhorn, “we are in a state of emergency when it comes to abortion rights.”

She called on U.S. Sens. Jack Reed and Lincoln Chafee, whom she referred to as “Rhode Island’s two pro-choice senators,” to vote against Roberts when he comes to the Senate for confirmation.

“Rather than appoint a moderate Justice in the mold of Sandra Day O’Connor, President Bush chose to appoint a partisan extremist,” Lamarre said, warning that Roberts would “overturn Roe and send us back to the days of dangerous back-alley abortions.” Roe v. Wade is the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide.

One of the signs held briefly by a protester carried a drawing of a coathanger inside a red circle with a diagonal line through it, similar to a no-smoking sign.

The rally, held during the afternoon rush hour, was sponsored by the RI Chapter of the National Organization for Women and 2 to1: The Coalition to Preserve Choice.

“It’s a scary time for pro-choice people,” said Hilary Markoe, president of 2 to 1. “Roberts is bad news.”

Markoe said that nationally, Rhode Island is considered “high risk” for outlawing abortion if Roe v. Wade is overturned, “or so severely restricting it that it would be, in effect, unobtainable.”

Another possibility, she said, is that “within 12 months, it would become a statewide legal battle, which is bad news, considering the Governor is anti-choice, the Senate is anti-choice and the House is anti-choice. If it becomes a legal battle in Rhode Island, pro-choice women are sure to lose.”

If abortion were outlawed in Rhode Island, Markoe said, women in the state would be faced with an array of bad choices:

“They could try to do an abortion themselves, which could lead to death or permanent sterility; they could obtain an illegal abortion, a dangerous and potentially deadly choice; they could keep the unwanted child, which could lead to increased teenaged mothers, child abuse and poverty, or they could travel to get an abortion in a state where abortion wa still legal, which for many women is just unrealistic.”

Jennifer Lawless, a candidate for Congress in the 2nd District, challenging pro-life incumbent James Langevin for the Democratic nomination, declared that, “the right to privacy is under the most ardent attack we have seen in decades.” She asserted that Langevin, the only pro-life legislator in Rhode Island’s Washington DC delegation, “voted against reproductive freedom 26 times.

After the rally, Lawless told The Times that “no one issue” should decide whether someone is qualified for a seat on the court, but that abortion rights should be one of those that is considered.

Lamarre agreed, saying Thursday’s rally was called to highlight abortion rights but that Roberts’ “record is scary in other areas,” including the environment and civil rights.

“His record shows he is in the pocket of conservatives,” Markoe said. “He said he wasn’t a member of the Federalist Society (a conservative lawyer’s group) but he was a member of the steering committee. So right from the get-go, he is a liar.”

©The Pawtucket Times 2005